Evaluating New Technologies for Test and Measurement: PCI Express, Multicore

Processing, and Microsoft Windows Vista

NIDays 2007Worldwide Virtual Instrumentation

Conference

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USB 1.1 GPIB (488.1)

Hi-Speed USB

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GPIB (HS488)

Better BestGood

Evaluating Test and Measurement Buses

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IF Communications

PCI Express

High-Speed Imaging

Multichannel Audio

High- Resolution Digitizers

PCI

Instrument Control

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Increasing Bus Bandwidth Opens New Applications

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PCI Express Overview• Evolutionary version of PCI

– Uses same software model as PCI, ensuring compatibility• Inside every new PC and notebook today• Low cost – built into PC chipsets• Serial interconnect at 2.5 Gb/s

– PCI transactions are packetized and then serialized– Low-voltage differential signaling, point-to-point, 8 B/10 B encoded– Bandwidth is dedicated PER slot and in BOTH directions– Multiple lanes can be grouped together to form links

• x1 (by 1) has bandwidth of 250 MB/s/direction• x16 (by 16) has bandwidth of 4 GB/s/direction

• Scalable interconnect – chip-to-chip, backplane, or cabled• Roadmap for longevity with Gen-2 clocking (5 Gb/s)

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PCI (32/33)Gigabit Ethernet

PCIe x1

PCIe x4

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Software Layer• PCI software-model compatible

– 100% OS and driver-level compatible– PCI enumeration, configuration, and power management

mechanisms– Existing operating systems boot with no changes (including BIOS)

• PCI Express hierarchy mapped using PCI elements– Host bridges– P2P bridges– All enumerated using the regular PCI device configuration space

• PCI capability pointer for PCI Express-specific extensions

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Physical Layer

• Point-to-point, differential interconnect with two endpoints• Low-voltage signaling, AC coupled• Two unidirectional links, no sideband signals• Bit rate: >2.5 Gb/s/pin/direction and beyond• Clocking: Embedded clock signaling using 8 B/10 B encoding• Link widths (per direction): x1, x2, x4, x8, x12, x16, x32• Gen-2 (5 Gb/s) speed increase

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PCI Express and PCI Slots on a Motherboard

2PCI Slots

1 x16 PCI Express

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3 x1 PCI Express

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NI PCIe-GPIBInstrument Control

(x1)

PCI Express Graphics Card(x16)

NI PCIe-1429Image Acquisition

(x4)

Examples of Different PCI Express Link Widths: x1, x4, and x16

PCI Express Cards

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Up-Plugging and Down-Plugging

Up-plugging: Installing boards in higher-lane slots• Allowed by PCI Express• Example: Plugging a x4 module in a x8 slot• Caveat: Motherboard vendors are only required to support a x1

data rate in this configuration– Full-bandwidth support will be vendor specific– Example: x16 slots may operate as a x1, even for x4 cards

Down-plugging: Installing boards in lower-lane slots• Physically prevented by the design of the slots and connectors

for the desktop form factor• Allowed in PXI Express and CompactPCI Express

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ExpressCard – PCI Express for Laptops• Both x1 PCI Express and Hi-Speed USB signaling on host• 34 mm and 54 mm form factors• PXI embedded controllers include ExpressCard/34 slot

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PCI Express Industry Adoption

• First PCI Express desktops shipped mid 2004• First ExpressCard laptops shipped early 2005 • PCI and PCI Express are side-by-side in all

Intel/Dell roadmaps• Primary consumer driver is graphics processing

(gamers, video editing)– PCI Express x16 replacing AGP

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National Instruments Shipping Products

• NI PCIe-GPIB (x1)• NI PCIe-6251 M Series (x1)• NI PCIe-6259 M Series (x1)• NI PCIe-1429 Camera Link (x4)• NI PCIe-1430 Camera Link (x4)• NI PCIe-8361 MXI-Express (x1)• NI PCIe-8362 MXI-Express (x1)• NI PCIe-8371 MXI-Express (x4)• NI PCIe-8372 MXI-Express (x4)• NI ExpressCard-8360 MXI-Express

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PCI Express Advantages

• Software compatibility with PCI• High bandwidth (up to >4 GB/s)• Scalable bandwidth• Dedicated bandwidth per slot• Low latency• Peer-to-peer communication• Internal and external operation• Long life (20+ years in the mainstream market)

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PXI Express – Integrating PCI Express into the PXI Backplane

• Up to 6 GB/s backplane and 2 GB/s slot bandwidth

• Backward compatibility– Complete software compatibility – Hybrid slot definition – install modules with either PCI

or PCI Express signaling in a single slot• Enhanced synchronization capabilities

– 100 MHz differential clock, differential triggering

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PXI and Hybrid Slots Ensure Compatibility

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PXI Slots

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Hybrid Slots

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PXI Express Hybrid Slots

• x8 PCIe (up to 2 GB/s)• Differential Clk. 100 & Star Triggers

PXI Express Hybrid

• Power • Trigger Bus• Star Trigger• Clk. 10

32/33 PCI(132 MB/s

per system)

• Reserved Pins• Local Bus(typically unused)

PXI

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32-Bit CompactPCIModule

PXI Express Peripheral Module

Hybrid Slot Compatible PXI Module

Hybrid Slot Flexibility

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NI PXIe-1062Q Hybrid Chassis

Hybrid Slots

Hybrid Slot Configuration

PXI: 2 6 7 8

PXI or PXIe: 3H

5H

PXIe Only: 4

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PXI-8105 Dual-Core Embedded Controller• Industry’s highest-performance embedded controller• Up to 100% higher performance for multithreaded apps• 2.0 GHz dual-core Intel Core Duo processor T2500• Dual-channel 667 MHz DDR2 RAM• Gigabit Ethernet • ExpressCard/34 slot• 4 Hi-Speed USB ports• 60 GB SATA hard drive• DVI-I video

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• 110 MB/s sustained throughput with MXI-Express remote control

• Rugged, compact package with slots for five peripheral modules

• Quiet acoustic noise emissions as low as 38 dBA

• Kit includes chassis with integrated controller, host card (PCI Express

or ExpressCard), and cable

NI PXI-1033 Chassis with Integrated MXI Express Controller

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PXI Express Video Demo – NIWeek 2006 Keynote

Click box to start video demo

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What Is Multicore Processing?

• Multicore processors contain two or more cores, or computing engines, in one physical processor

• Multicore processors simultaneously execute two or more computing tasks• Why Multicore? Because of power and performance issues, continuing to

rely solely on increases in processor clock rates to improve performance is not feasible

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Multi-core Programming

“One Holy Grail of computer science research has been finding a way to let a compiler take care of parallelization. “

- Richard Wirt, Intel Senior Fellow

C LabVIEW

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Multicore vs. Multiprocessor vs. HyperthreadedMultiprocessor• Multiprocessor systems include two or more physical processors• Multiprocessor systems duplicate computing resources that are

often shared in multicore systems (front-side bus, etc.)• Multiprocessor systems are, most often, higher cost than similar

multicore systems (single processor, processor socket, etc.)Hyperthreaded• A hyperthreaded processor “acts like” two physical processors• Certain resources are duplicated (register set, etc.), but the

execution unit is shared• Hyperthreaded systems include multiple logical processors

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Multitasking• Multitasking environments (Windows XP, etc.) allow

multiple applications to run at the same time• With a multicore processor, these multiple applications

can simultaneously execute on the processor cores

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Multithreading• Multithreaded applications separate their tasks

into independent threads• A multicore processor can simultaneously

execute these threads

Demo

Multithreaded Application Executing on a Dual-Core Processor

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PXI-8105 LabVIEW Benchmarks

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The Future of Multicore Processing

• Architecture improvements to further reduce power and improve memory bandwidth

• Multiprocessor systems with multicore processors

• More processor cores• Quad-core processors will release in 2007

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Microsoft Windows Vista Overview

• Visualization and Search• Security Changes• .NET 3.0 API• Vista x86 versus Vista x64• Vista Availability• Vista System Requirements

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Graphics and Visualization

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WoW Emulation

Vista x86 versus Vista x64Vista x86 (32-Bit) Vista x64 (64-Bit)

Executes in User Mode

Executes inKernel Mode

32-Bit Application

32-Bit Serviceor Driver

32-Bit Application

64-Bit Application

64-Bit Serviceor Driver

64-Bit Serviceor Driver

NI Software 2007 After 2007

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Vista System Requirements

• Minimum (XP-like experience)– 1 GHz “Modern” Processor– 512 MB RAM– DirectX 9 Video

• Premium (“Aero” experience)– 1 GHz “Modern” Processor– 1 GB RAM– DirectX 9 Video with 128 MB VRAM

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Vista-ready LabVIEW 8.2.1 released on Monday, April 9th